I'd like to explore the subject of connections between wheat &/or grains and mental/emotional effects. Relevance to O's not required. Any and all reading suggestions, links, anecdotes will be appreciated.It's incredible how much I have learned through this website (has it been six months already?!) Incredible improvements going on "regular" BTD, then even more after ditching Nonnie no-no's. Onward & upward, folks!I'm going to work, now, but will be checking in over the next days/weeks.Thanks in advance of all replies, your loyal bud, OSuzanna. P.S. Nearly all of my adult family members (a tribe of O's) now own copies of one or both of Dr. D's first 2 books b/c of the stunning improvements they've seen in me, and are making their first tentative forays into the BTD world. My sister even used the word "compliant" at dinner the other night! I almost fell out of my chair!

OSuzannaA Before Picture , In the Process of Becoming an After Picture FOOD for THOUGHT, Super Beneficial 4 All Blood Types!

. Nearly all of my adult family members (a tribe of O's) now own copies of one or both of Dr. D's first 2 books b/c of the stunning improvements they've seen in me, and are making their first tentative forays into the BTD world.

What a good example you are for your family OSuzanna!!! So glad for you that you have so many family members on board. It is very hard to watch those you love killing themselves w/ what they eat isn't it.

Quoted from osuzanna

. My sister even used the word "compliant" at dinner the other night! I almost fell out of my chair!

!!!!!!!!!!

On to the ? at hand. I can say from a personal standpoint, that wheat definitely has a bad mental/emotional effect. Last Oct/Nov I was diagnosed clinically depressed and of course the dr wanted to give me the "magic" pills. Whatever! He refused to do blood tests to see where all my levels were as well. Needless to say, he was history from that visit on. I went home, cleaned up my diet and got back to taking my adrenal meds as I should. Within a week, I was fine and have been since.

Hi Suzanna and Pat, there are several connections on diet and autism via the hormon secretin, as Dr D. wrote in this syte.A lot of cases of schizofrenia gluten and casein related ( with gluten and casein free diet a huge recovery and with a new ingestion again sick) have been diagnosed by Sheinkin , Schachter and Hutton and reported in the book "The food connection" when working for the Veterans Administration.Dr D wrote in this Forum also of a wheat and red meat connection for As with bipolar disorder.I have read in Pubmed that, with leaky gut or celiac disease, casein, gluten and other proteins to avoid arrive in the brain ad result in gluteomorphins, caseomorphins and so on like in drug abuse.Look for Dr D opinions in this syte !Gluten made only me tired after lunch, but for someone can be venom !

Ooooh . . . my favorite subject! Before I read ER4YT, I cut back on wheat when I started low-carbing. Subsequently, I eliminated it because that was the recommendation of one author to help prevent recurrence of fibroids. Since then, I have been back on it (travelling, holidays . . . ) and off it quite a number of times. No excuses, just to say that I am certain of the impact wheat has on me independent of other factors. The most amazing to discover was the impact on my mood. I am much more prone to depression and am just more touchy and less able to deal with the "bumps" in the road of life when I am eating wheat. I have GI track issues, too, and wheat definitely doesn't help them; and some have theorized about the tie between GI track issues and mood issues.

I'd love to know how many people could drop the SSRIs and other anti-Ds if they simply just cut out wheat.

It explains why supper charges me up and a grain breakfast puts me to sleep. I do take an SSRI for depression which runs in my family. There have been times that I have been so down, I did not even have the energy to make anything to eat, for days at a time. Guess what I would eat--that's right--wheat cereal with milk, especially frosted shredded wheat, YUMMY. I wonder how I ever got back on track after days of that!!! Even then, I had a tiny voice in my head suggesting that it was the cereal keeping me down, but I was to down to make anything else. What a merri-go-round.

This is a great subject!! I am excited to read what others have found. Sandy O

Just started walking this week with my daugher. She also goes to curves 3 times a week and wants me to go with her. So I will be doing that soon also. We just redid all the landscaping and did alot of gardening this year. Exercise is awesome to help with weight loss, increased energy, decrease depression, ect. But it is not an instant cure for clinical depression. It is just one of many variables that effect it. So together with the BTD and encouragement from those around me, I am praying for some real changes Sandy O

This is an interesting topic! I've heard from many different sources about swings in moods so to speak and diet. Wheat specifically has not made headlines but I think there are subtle changes to be detected and when I read the responses to this thread so far I felt it might be alright to mention something out of the way back distant past before written history. There are so many veiws about how things came to be the way they are and the BTD puts some of the issues in perspective for me certainly. I don't want to hijack this thread so what I'll say for now is I'm adding wheat to the list of usual suspects in the breakdown of mutual human understanding on the planet. War, and violence in general, has many roots. Perhaps among them is a waving grain.Iemnli

love or perish, sing or croak,recycle or regret, write or read, think or thwim.

. I don't want to hijack this thread so what I'll say for now is I'm adding wheat to the list of usual suspects in the breakdown of mutual human understanding on the planet. War, and violence in general, has many roots. Perhaps among them is a waving grain.Iemnli

Maybe start a new thread on the subject. If you do, would you mention here what you titled it. Thanks

Hi EveryoneJust wanted to add my own personal experience. I have suffered from anxiety for about 6 years, and taken anti-depressants on and off for 4 of those.

For the most part my anxiety was just a little more than normal, but at times I would have a severe attack and be put back on med's (I hated needing med's, but welcomed sanity).

Well I started the BTD about 1 month ago, and a couple of weeks ago I decided to venture off the med's so far with no consequence. I have also noticed my moods are evening out and I can handle situations in a calmer manner.

Is this wheat related? I'm leaning towards yes. I was always a huge bread eater. Anyway I'm not willing to go back and try wheat again to find out.

I feel more peaceful and calm now and have much more energy than ever before!

My son who is gluten intolerant definitely HAD behavioral issues when he was ingesting gluten. He was very ADHD, with many autistic-like symptoms. It was very scary to see him this way when we started taking him off of the allergy meds he was taking at the time. It was like he came out of a trance into a child we had never known before. It was so scary. That's when I found out about the gluten, and I am so thankful I did. My husband's brother is a diagnosed schizophrenic and ALL he wants to eat is pizza, bread, cheese and milk, all of which are super no-no's for him. It is so sad to see him this way, and I think my hubby has gluten issues, being it makes him more depressive and his attention span is very short. He says he definitely feels better without it himself. So, there is definitely a genetic link. I think wheat/gluten caused inflammation and pain in my body, along with the dairy, resulting in fibromyalgia in me, along with past Crohn's.

Some time I want to get tested for the celiac gene and have my family tested as well. I think this thing is very genetically-linked.

I have also noticed my moods are evening out and I can handle situations in a calmer manner.Is this wheat related? I'm leaning towards yes.

I find wheat affects my moods alot. It can set in depression AND make me crabby among other things.

Tina, your son had autistic like symptoms when he was consuming gluten and the symptoms went away when you took it out of his diet? I've read this connection before and know someone w/ an autistic child. Would like to pass on info from a personal experience rather than something I just read.

Wheat throws me into a tailspin - I become tired, lose energy, go into brain fog and become hugely emotionally sensitive, and the then can become quite rageful without much provocation.

Sugar, on the other hand, makes me quite despondent and suicidal - a huge no-no for me.

I'm seeing the emotional connection between balanced blood sugar levels and balanced hormonal levels . . . when I eat wheat, corn, potatoes or sugar (those are the ones so far), I can go from a state of pure peace and contentment into a really awful place that I get quite lost in.

Hormonally, when I'm not taking the herbs that are helpful, I can experience some of the above.

Yes, taking gluten out of the diet does help autism. Mainly taking gluten and casein out of the diet, casein of course being dairy. Please tell her to at least try it, get her son tested for gluten intolerance IGg blood test, called gliadin. It is mostly a leaky gut issue, connected to the brain, but gluten and casein are the two big culprits. Have also read that raw cultured milk, like kefir, helps autistic children though. Just the raw, not pasteurized. Probably the type B's.

If she wants to email me, she can, or you can email me personally. Hope this helps.